Bias Cut

Bias Cut is a 2012 novel written by Morgan Richter.

Burned out and bitter after a year of professional and personal disappointments, Nicola Strozyk takes a temporary job working for Laurie Sparks, the design world’s reigning enfant terrible.  Barely in his twenties, Laurie has built himself an empire that encompasses a chic Manhattan boutique and a role in an obnoxious reality series.  Laurie is beautiful, extravagant, and effeminate; at nearly twice his age, Nicola is unsentimental and resolutely unglamorous.

When Laurie becomes obsessed with tracking down the designer of a mysterious coat in Nicola’s possession, they embark upon a quest that takes them from the New York catwalks to Hollywood parties and swanky suites in Paris hotels.  What begins as a lark takes a violent turn when they find themselves dogged by a gunman in a bleak town in the Nevada desert.  Their odd-couple camaraderie gradually evolves into a fierce bond, which is put to the test when Nicola must protect Laurie from a pair of deadly threats: a mercurial fellow designer hell-bent on burying a dark secret, and an obsessive killer who has fixed his sights on Laurie.

General fiction with strong mystery/thriller elements, Bias Cut is, at heart, a platonic love story between two damaged individuals who discover how much better their lives become when they're together.

Connection to Lonely Satellite and Demon City:
Many of the characters in Bias Cut appear in Morgan Richter’s Lonely Satellite (which is, in fact, an alternate-timeline reimagining of Bias Cut) as well. In addition, a few characters—notably, Nicola’s roommate Donya Kashani—appear in or are mentioned in Morgan Richter’s Demon City.

Awards:
Bias Cut won a Silver medal in the Mystery category of the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) and was a 2012 semi-finalist (top 1% of 10,000 entries) for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA).

In the below links, major plot spoilers are blackened out. Highlight the black areas to read.

Major Characters in Bias Cut:
Laurie Sparks
Nicola Strozyk
Jonathan Frisch

Secondary Characters in Bias Cut
Danielle Marcin
Molly Gable